Disability Stronger Predictor of Longevity Than ...(survivors of heart or lung disease oste...),Health

Stark gender differences were apparent, however. While noting that women are far more likely to reach 100 than men, the authors found that male centenarians function significantly better physically and mentally than female centenarians.

Among "survivors" alone, 72 percent of men were considered functionally "independent", compared with 34 percent of women. And among all centenarians, 67 percent of men had normal or mildly impaired cognitive function, compared with just 42 percent of women.

The researchers floated the explanation that men are generally far less resilient than women, so that those men who do make it to 100 are the cream of the crop.

Overall, Perls and his team concluded that for many elderly people, disability, rather than disease, determines longevity.

"This is just a first step of what I think is a pretty cool finding," said Perls. "And what we need to do now is try to discover what enables these people to markedly delay their disability. We have to go over all the possible factors -- socioeconomic, genetic -- and see what plays a role. Where do they get their functional reserve, resilience, capacity? We don't know the answers yet."

Meanwhile, Dr. James S. Goodwin, director of the Sealy Center on Aging at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, expressed little surprise at the findings.

"What this study shows is that disease is not the best way to assess the health of older people," he said. "If you live long enough, you're going to pick up a lot of them -- diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease -- but, by themselves, they don't immediately make people feel bad."

"But when people go on to become disabled, tha
'/>"/>